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Research Projects, Presentations & Publications

The University of Utah, Department of Anthropology offers advanced degrees in the field. Many department graduate students have initiated independent research projects after visiting Range Creek and have presented the results of these inquiries at conferences and seminars. Listed below are some of the presentations and publications from the staff and students of the Range Creek Field Station.

The West Tavaputs Plateau, home to Nine Mile, Range Creek, and Desolation Canyons, has been the focus of renewed archaeological interest for the last decade. Multiple excavations, horticultural experiments, and modern survey data are providing new and exciting insights into the subsistence, land use, settlement patterns, horticultural technology, and economics of both prehistoric and historic inhabitants of the plateau. Unfortunately, the archaeological record over large swaths of the plateau is also under constant threat from vandalism, looting, and development impacts. This symposium brings together academic, nonacademic, and agency archaeologists working on the West Tavaputs Plateau and adjoining areas to share the results from their current and ongoing projects pertaining to the area’s rich occupation history and its continued preservation.

Range Creek Canyon is a mid-elevation canyon in the West Tavaputs Plateau in central Utah. Located in a very rugged and remote region, the canyon contains a remarkably intact record of an intense Fremont occupation between A.D. 900 – 1200. To date over 400 sites have been recorded and only a fraction of the canyon has been surveyed. This symposium focuses on the results and direction of research now centered at the recently established University of Utah field station. Paper topics include experimental archaeology, agricultural productivity, isotopic analysis of soils, high elevation occupation, remote sensing, palynology, fire history, obsidian sourcing and dating.

Contributed Papers

Arnold Boomgarden, S.

2011 A GIS Model of Irrigation in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Boomgarden, J.

2011 Experimental Archaeology: Granary Construction in Range Creek Canyon. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Brunnelle, A., L. Coats, and S. Morris

2011 Figuring it out as we go: Paleoecology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Clark, J.

2011 Obsidian in Range Creek Canyon: A Sourcing and Hydration Analysis for Lithic Debitage and Tools. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Coats, L.

2011 The Distribution and Variety of High Elevation Sites in Range Creek canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Coltrain, J.

2011 Evidence for Fremont Maize Farming in the Soil Organic Chemistry of Range Creek Canyon. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Green, R.

2011 Application of Ethnographic Foraging Catchment Data to Investigate Fremont Settlement Patterns in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Hart, I.

2011 A GIS 4,000 Year Pollen Record from Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Metcalfe, D.

2011 Time in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

Springer, C. and A. Kelsey

2011 Smoke Signals:The Positive Effects of Fire on the Germination and Growth of Nicotiana Attenuata (coyote tobacco). Paper presented in the symposium, Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon at the 76th Annual meetings of the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento CA.

2014b Prehistoric Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah: A Summary of Activities of the Range Creek Field Station, paper delivered at the Utah Professional Archaeological Counsel, Spring Meeting, Weber State University.

2002 Storage Strategies, Caching, and the Economy of a Variable Environment. Symposium: The Archaeological and Historic Treasures of Range Creek, Utah. Delivered at the 28th Great Basin Anthropological Conference. Elko, NV.

2014 Prehistoric Archaeology in Lower Range Creek Canyon, Utah: A Summary of Activities of the University of Utah Summer Archaeological Field School, Range Creek Canyon Field Station. Presentation to the Wyoming Archaeological Society.

2006 The Archaeology of Range Creek, Utah. Presented to the Gray Berets, a group of retired physicians at McKay Dee Hospital, Ogden, Utah

2005 The extraordinary archaeology of Range Creek, Utah. Presented to the Natural Resources Law Forum and the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah.

2005 Range Creek: Where are we headed? Presented at the Utah Rock Art Research Association’s 25th Annual Symposium, Price, Utah.

2005 From Private to Public; The Acquisition of the Wilcox Ranch/Range Creek property by the State of Utah. Presented at the Salt Lake City Library as part of a public symposium on Range Creek, sponsored by the Utah Museum of Natural History.

2005a The Archaeology and Paleoecology of Range Creek Canyon. Colloquium Series, Department of Geography, University of Utah. Salt Lake City.

2005b Range Creek Canyon: Past, Present, and Future. Public lectures, delivered at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum, Green River, Utah; College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, Price, Utah; and Museum of the San Rafael, Castle Dale, Utah.

2005c The Challenges of Conducting Archaeology in Range Creek. Public lecture series, Discoveries at Range Creek: New Perspectives on the Fremont People. Delivered at the Salt Lake City Downtown Library.

2005 An Introduction to Dendrochronology. Presented to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Staff and University of Utah Archaeological Field School staff and students. July 17, 2005. Range Creek Canyon, Utah.

2014 Report of the Archaeological Investigations in Range Creek Canyon, Utah: University of Utah Archaeological Field School 2013 (U13UA0208bs). Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2013 Report of the Archaeological Investigations in Range Creek Canyon, Utah: University of Utah Archaeological Field School 2011-2012 (U12UA1081bs). Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Boomgarden, Shannon, Jamie Clark, Rachelle Green, and Duncan Metcalfe

2008 Report of the 2007 Survey and Excavation at Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

Boomgarden, Shannon, Jamie Clark, Rachelle Green, and Duncan Metcalfe

2009 Report of the 2008 Survey and Excavation at Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

2010 Report of the 2009 Survey and Excavation at Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

2011 Report of the 2010 Survey and Excavation at Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

Green, Rachelle

2007 An Archaeological Management Plan for Range Creek Canyon, Utah. For Submittal to Range Creek Canyon Land Managing Agencies. On file at the University of Utah, Department of Anthropology, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2012 Lighthouse Wildfire Archaeological Survey Report. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

Springer, Corinne and Shannon Boomgarden

2016 2015 Range Creek Canyon Archaeological Survey Report (U15UA0275bps). Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2010 A Report of Archaeological Investigations in Range Creek Canyon, Utah: University of Utah Archaeological Field School 2005-2006. Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City Utah.

2016 2004 Archaeological Investigations in Range Creek Canyon, Utah (U04UA0447bps)Manuscript on file at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the Antiquities Section of the Utah Division of State History, Salt Lake City, Utah.

BOOK CHAPTER

Metcalfe Duncan

2008 Range Creek Canyon. In The Great Basin: People and Place in Ancient Times. Edited by Catherine S. Fowler and Don D. Fowler, pp. 117-123. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe.